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A West of Scotland Chapter Event

The Return of Simplified Planning Zones (SPZ): Lessons from Hillington and Renfrew

August 2014 saw the adoption of the Hillington Park Simplified Planning Zone (SPZ) Scheme, the first in Scotland for over 20 years. The project was promoted by Hillington Park’s majority land owner Patrizia UK and was prepared in partnership between Terrence O’Rourke Ltd, Renfrewshire Council and Glasgow City Council. With the shared ambition of boosting local businesses the partners have delivered a scheme which has lead to increased investment in one of Scotland’s largest business parks and which won an award at the Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning as well as being shortlisted at the UK planning awards.

Following on from this success, Renfrewshire Council sought to apply a similar approach in Renfrew town centre. Prepared as part of the Scottish Government’s Town Centre Planning Pilots Programme, the Renfrew Town Centre SPZ was adopted in August 2015 and became the first town centre SPZ in Scotland.

Speakers for this event are:

Sarah Shaw, Principal, Delegated and Performance at Glasgow City Council

The discussion will examine the motivations behind seeking an SPZ for Hillington, the process of getting to grips with a rarely used planning instrument, and some of the successes that the SPZ Scheme has achieved there. It will also cover how learning from preparing the Hillington SPZ helped when applying this approach in a Town Centre Context and will give an overview of how simplifying planning can help to support town centre regeneration.